The newest generation of IxDers and our (lack of) exposure

[david farkas-2]

This past weekend Carnegie Mellon University held their Homecoming
celebrations. As a part of that, the School of Design celebrated their 75th
year as well as the recognition as the oldest ID school in the country.
Among an afternoon of events was a panel in which five alumni, dating from
the Class of 1953 to the Class of 2009 sat and discussed their educational
and professional experiences at the school.

One thing stood out to me. All of the members of the panel, except for the
2009 recent graduate, started in fields other than design. They ultimately
found design as a calling that fit their intellectual and creative needs.
The 2009 alum on the other hand has spent his life pursuing a career in
Design. I happen to fall in that category as well. I went to a variety of
art programs throughout my childhood and graduated Carnegie Mellon in Design
and practice in the field.

With that in mind I ask what are we, the new generation of designers,
missing from the puzzle? Focused on design for so long we appreciate quality
aesthetics and experiences but we lack the exposure to business,
engineering, math, science and other fields that have helped sculpt the
skills of the designers before us. Where will this trend of 'breeding
designers since youth' take the field as opposed to our educators who found
design after years of practicing in other disciplines?


David Farkas
Interactions Design
www.dfarkasdesign.com
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[david farkas-2]

@Christian, interesting that you mentioned the Target designer lines.
That was actually subject of the conversation Saturday and how,
regardless of success they helped bring design to the mainstream a
little bit more.

@Colleen, I agree wholeheartedly that a background in fields other
than design is essential. I have basic development skills and it
allows me to speak on level with the developers and to better
understand their constraints. I want to push back a little though
when you said that having a background in other fields prevents
engineers from talking 'down to them'. Both design and engineering
(and coding and anything else) are specialties with our own lingo. I
spend a lot of my time as a designer communicating to business
managers the processes and methods I am using on projects. I could be
short non designers and talk down to them but I try to relate terms
and methods to processes they might be more familiar with. To this
point, I think it is important that engineers and developers
understand that they have a specific skill set that not everyone else
has. Communication is key and while its helpful for everyone to have a
high level understandings of each others fields I think it is more
important for the specialist of each field to remember that they are
on a project because they have a certain toolbox at their disposal
that everyone else doesn't grasp as well.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47176


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[Gretchen Anderson-2]

You asked:
With that in mind I ask what are we, the new generation of designers,
missing from the puzzle?

Some answers:
- I got into the game before there was a lot of formal training around
IxD/UX. That's the reason many of us oldsters have backgrounds that are
different.
- What's missing from design education IMO is the writing and
communication skills from typical liberal arts education. The need to
communicate in writing can't be understated, even in a world of visuals.

- a solid understanding of business fundamentals can't hurt. The extent
to which you can empathize with business people and their quest for
profits will make you more peruasive.
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[Jack Moffett-2]

On Nov 2, 2009, at 1:14 PM, David Farkas wrote:

> Where will this trend of 'breeding
> designers since youth' take the field as opposed to our educators  
> who found
> design after years of practicing in other disciplines?


I too come to Interaction Design from a straight, educational path.  
However, I have a different perspective on this. If you look at  
Graphic Design, there are a lot of designers that have been "bread  
since youth"—likely more than come to it from other disciplines,  
although I don't have anything to back that up. I wouldn't call it a  
trend. I think Gretchen is right. It is simply due to IxD being a  
young discipline, one that touches many other areas of expertise.

Best,
Jack



Jack L. Moffett
Senior Interaction Designer
inmedius
412.459.0310 x219
http://www.inmedius.com


There is no good design that is not
based on the understanding of people.

                             - Stefano Marzano
                               CEO of Philips Design

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[Gretchen Anderson-2]

Worth pointing out @peterme's latest tweet:
 
"I'm always disappointed 2 get a resume from designers who went from
undergrad straight 2 grad skool. The real world, ppl! Live it!"

I kind of agree. You can't get design judgement experience in skool. You
can get lots of insight about the process and avoid the mistakes us
oldsters had to make in order to learn stuff, tho.


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[Jack Moffett-2]

On Nov 2, 2009, at 2:24 PM, Gretchen Anderson wrote:

> Worth pointing out @peterme's latest tweet:
>
> "I'm always disappointed 2 get a resume from designers who went from
> undergrad straight 2 grad skool. The real world, ppl! Live it!"
>
> I kind of agree. You can't get design judgement experience in skool.  
> You
> can get lots of insight about the process and avoid the mistakes us
> oldsters had to make in order to learn stuff, tho.

That's not surprising, coming from Peter. I think it is short-sighted.  
I went straight from undergrad to grad school because, with a degree  
in Graphic Design, I knew that there would be a lot more for me to  
learn to be able to practice Interaction Design (or "design  
mulitmedia" as I referred to it at the time). That was the right  
choice for me, and it worked out extremely well. The real-world  
experience was picked up after I graduated with my Masters. Sure, I  
could have delayed my IxD career a couple years to get work experience  
as a Graphic Designer, but I fortunately didn't have to do that.

This argument is the same as "formal education vs. self-taught",  
"IxDer must have strong visual design skills vs. doesn't need them",  
and several others. It comes down to your own experiences, and thus  
your own bias. There is actually not a "wrong" or "right" way to do  
it. The important thing is that however you come to design, you do it  
well. Don't completely pre-judge someone based on their path, their  
degree, their school, etc. Judge them on their work and their  
interpersonal abilities.

http://designaday.tumblr.com/post/22014905/a-few-observations

Best,
Jack


Jack L. Moffett
Senior Interaction Designer
inmedius
412.459.0310 x219
http://www.inmedius.com


Most people make the mistake of
thinking design is what it looks like…
People think it's this veneer—
that the designers are handed this box
and told, "Make it look good!"

That's not what we think design is.
It's not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works.

                                                     - Steve Jobs

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[j. eric townsend]

David Farkas wrote:
> With that in mind I ask what are we, the new generation of designers,
> missing from the puzzle?

Speaking from my experience as an engineer working with designers,
history of the domain.  Nobody can be an expert on everything,
obviously, but you should know something about the history of the domain
where you want to work.   If you sell yourself as a designer in the
PDA/smartphone space, it would behoove you to know how Palm helped
General Magic commit business suicide or why the EO had ears that also
held all the ports.

Speaking as a recent student of design and thinking about my classmates,
I think it's a love of a specific field (which probably gets you history
of the field for free).  The type nerds I met in design school spent
their spare time reading about type, not playing sports.  The guys
(always guys :-) I knew who were into automotive design spent their free
time working on cars, looking at cars, driving cars, etc.

One thing I'm personally interested in is how non-designers will build
toasters the way non-designers started being able to make posters after
the advent of desktop publishing.   As a fan of "reflect on doing", I've
decided to "do" and bought a cheap 3D FDM printer
(<http://www.makerbot.com>) that I'm setting up and attempting to use as
a normal household appliance.


--
J. E. 'jet' Townsend, IDSA
Designer, Fabricator, Hacker
design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net;  HF: KG6ZVQ
PGP: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23 C61A 1B4A 27C5 F799 A681 3C11 D0D8 C2E8
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